Briefly, While My Eyes Are Still Open

If one more person tells me that my energy is amazing, I will scream.  Aloud.  In public. 

I am tired.  I ache.  I have a smile on my face and love in my heart but I am not as old as I'm going to be and I'm certainly not as young as I used to be.

I never thought that was a valid excuse before hearing a friend's tale of woe last night, a tale with which I could identify, a tale that ended with "We are just too old to do this on a regular basis."

I understood what she meant, without judgment.  The body takes longer to recover as it spends more time on the planet. I may have more patience in my seventh decade, or I might be too tired to care that much about so many things. 

I'm husbanding my energy for these moments at my kitchen table.  Patty the Magnificent cleaned again, but she left my work station intact.  I'd organized it.... a little bit, anyway.  All the gift tags were in the same box

and the ribbons and small garlands were collected in the same area. 

I replaced the cushions on their individual chairs;

I have to stack a couple in order to sit here and type to you.

Pandora's Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas Station has been making me smile.  I'm going to find my Bela Fleck CD, the one with the Tuvan Throat Singers, and put it in my car.  There are certain things that must be enjoyed within a concentrated period of time, and that CD is one of them.

Latkes are on my mind as unranked Indiana takes an improbable lead early in the second half.  They have the highest scoring freshman in the country, and they are giving 4th ranked Louisville an exercise in humility... at least for now. 

I'm making a pot roast, and the longer it cooks the better it smells.  G'ma's roaster is the perfect piece of cookware - the right size and full of memories.  I'm going to use it for Amster's Hanukkah party turkey ... and G'ma will be with us every step of the way.

I found a box of Hanukah cards hidden at the bottom of The Rochman's Cedar Chest and I'm going to write to my siblings and my cousins and my friends as I watch Indiana and Arizona play basketball.... not against one another.... but at the same time on different channels. 

I'm going to smile at the picture Brother took of himself wearing the Nationals' jacket we bought him at 60 to replace the Cubbie's jacket we bought him at 30. Thoughts of him lead me to SIR, and the two of them bonding over baseball and home repairs and daughters.  And daughters lead me to FlapJilly and Big Cuter's big hands on her little head and my smile is about to break my cheeks.

Happy Everything!  We're going to watch Errol Flynn's Robin Hood while IU is in the lead.  We're in a happy place and we mean to stay there.  Happy Everything!